Aaron Wallace has put together a very interesting book that is a little hard to classify. It is part guide book, part Disney History, and part academic discussion to name a few of the many layers/pieces that make up the book. This is the first in what hopefully will be a series looking at the theme parks that make up Walt Disney World. This book is devoted solely to the Magic Kingdom. You are taken through the lands of the park starting with Adventureland and working around clockwise to Main Street. Within each land key attractions are highlighted and discussed in depth, in the Main Street section they also discuss a couple of the parades/shows. [Read more…]

Walt Disney World is for little kids, princesses, and dweebs, right? WRONG!There’s more than enough at WDW to keep the two-fisted, thrill-seeking, hard-drinking, meat-eating he-man of the house happy as a caveman with a mammoth rib.Bart Scott comes to the aid of moms and girlfriends everywhere with the only guidebook specifically designed to convince the football-watching, beer-swilling, couch potato they love that a trip to WDW will not only reduce the whining in the household and give them continued access to those special favors, but will actually be FUN for them.Scott’s the real deal—a real guy, with big appetites, firm convictions, and a healthy disdain for pretentiousness in all its forms. He’s also big enough to admit that the toughest hombre’s heart melts a little when his own little princess falls under the spell of Disney magic.

Ears of Steel is an honest, straight-from-the-shoulder, and frequently hilarious look at everything in Walt Disney World that keeps real men coming back, with all the sissy stuff either glossed over or ignored entirely.

First of all, this book was written for men. I am certainly no man. According to the book, I was “supposed” to read a small chapter in the beginning and hand the book to my man. Seeing that I just went ahead and read the book, I was apparently breaking the law:)

What I found in the book was whit and macho hilarium. In fact, I would love to meet the author, Bart, simply so I could see him using his humor first hand! The book was great at presenting excitement for attractions from a man’s perspective. The humor poked at the more feminine aspects of the Disney parks and greatly highlighted the more manly aspects of a visit to Disney World (such as describing how to Drink Around the World in EPCOT).

The book is directed towards those males who may not want a vacation to Disney because the parks overadverise the softer, more child-like aspects of the park. However, the humor and the descriptions make the book easily directed at anyone who wants to learn a bit about the parks while laughing along with the author.

About the Author:When Natalie is not helping others plan a Disney vacation, she is a wife, mom and Certified Public Accountant. She collected her favorite planning and money savings tips in her book Strategies for Paying for Disney. In addition to these great savings strategies, she uses Magical Journeys to book her vacation so she can receive the best available cost on her next Disney adventure!

The 2011 edition of The Hassle Free Walt Disney World Vacation guide marks two milestones this year. The first is this is the 10th year, I believe. Secondly, it includes several pages of color pictures.

Steven Barrett checks in with the regular updates and mentions of new/changed attractions that you would expect to find, including recent changes like the addition of Captain EO as well as mentions of the upcoming changes to Fantasyland. The Hassle Free guide follows the same easy to read format of the previous editions. There is a brief description of each park, then one of each attraction with some notes/comments, followed by touring plans for various age groups and lengths of stay.

The color photos I mentioned above come into play for the new photo quiz for this year, color really does make the difference and adds to the fun![Read more…]

Time was when, if you were lucky enough to find a travel guide that addressed the needs of the “disabled,” it was all about wheelchair access. Boy, how times have changed.

The new PassPorter’s Walt Disney World for your Special Needs covers seemingly every possible situation, from ADHD to Vision, with 18 others in between, including some that aren’t really disabilities at all (religion and senior citizenship, for instance), but which can raise very genuine concerns for some vacationers.

Written by Deb Wills and Debra Martin Koma, this massive compendium represents an enormous amount of research (they cite nearly three dozen “peer reviewers”) and all the hard work has clearly paid off. Their book is the de facto encyclopedia on special needs at Disney World and it is unlikely that their achievement will ever be duplicated, let alone surpassed. As with any PassPorter publication the exhaustive attention to detail leaves no cleverly themed stone unturned and no question unanswered.[Read more…]